PARIS BY NIGHT

Here comes my favourite part of the Paris trip. The night life. We consulted a fair few different sources and I think we got it spot on when it comes to choosing the right restaurants and clubs for us (or a club as it turns out). We wanted the restaurants fun and lively with good, proper food (NOT fine dining in a stuffy atmosphere please.)

So let's start with our Friday night. There are sadly no pictures of the restaurant but we dined at Paris's La Petite Maison. The original one is on the French Riviera in Nice. There is also one in London, Cannes and Dubai (there could be new ones too that I'm not aware of). The food is always good in any of the LPM's. Tasty, hearty, good, honest food that never disappoints. I also love the fact that you can share both the starters and the mains should you wish to. Paris's LPM is located in the Fouquets Barriere Hotel. In the very Parisian style you dine in a conservatory like area at the front of the hotel. The restaurant is dimly lit with wall lights and candles. The decor is simple with white table cloths and draped curtains with some contemporary art on the walls to follow the style of the original one in Nice.

After dinner we were certainly not ready to call it a night yet so we headed to a club called Raspoutine. What a seriously cool venue. True to its name it's decorated in a Russian style in dark red velvet. It's nice and small and fills up late, from 1am onwards. I say late but I mean late for me, which is probably not late by Paris standards. The crowd was beautiful to say the least and the nice thing about the people was that it was all ages. Sure the majority were in their twenties but we didn't stick out like a sore thumb as there were plenty of other groups of party goers in their thirties and forties and I dare to say even fifties. We had so much fun and the music was so good (house just the way I like it, not too heavy but fun) that we returned the next night!  

On Saturday we started the evening off by having a couple of drinks at the bar of Le Royal Monceau Hotel. It has a lovely set up and their Christmas decorations were just stunning.

We then headed off to dinner at a restaurant called Monsieur Bleu. Another great recommendation by someone. Modernly decorated with a lively, fun atmosphere. Table is hard to come by so a booking well in advance is a must.

Once in France one must have frog legs. And they were very, very good too!

It pains me to admit that this is my only picture of Eiffel Tower from the trip. How bad is that? Btw I want to apologise for the picture quality of this post as a whole. It's just impossible to carry a big camera around in the evenings so a compact one and iPhone had to do.

Talking about picture quality... I wanted a picture of us girls outside Monsieur Bleu as it was located in such unique surroundings. But the men were in such a rush that this is the best we got! 

This time I won't be waiting five years before returning to Paris! What a great birthday weekend!

Minna x